Mexican singer Sergio Vega speaks in front of a promotional image of his album "Plaza Nueva" in Mexico City. Vega was murdered Saturday, June 26, 2010 by unknown assailants in Mexico's Sinaloa state.

Hours after a famed Mexican musician told fans he was very much alive – someone killed him.

Sergio Vega, a singer known for songs about Mexico's drug wars, was shot dead on his way to perform a concert in Mexico Saturday, the BBC reports.

Vega, 40, performed under the name "El Shaka" and rose to fame for his catalogue of "narcocorridos," songs that celebrate the culture of Mexico's drug cartels.

Musicians who sing these songs have often become targets of warring drug gangs, and at least seven have been killed in the past three years, the BBC reports.

Vega spoke Saturday to the website La Oreja to deny rumors he had been murdered, Sky News reports.

"It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," Vega said. "And then I have to call my dear mum, who has heart trouble, to reassure her."

Only this time, the reports proved prophetic. Vega was reportedly gunned down in a state controlled by the dangerous Sinaloa cartel while driving his red Cadillac Saturday night to play a concert.

Gunmen opened fire on Vega's car, causing him to lose control of the vehicle. The gunmen then "finished Mr. Vega off" with shots to the head and chest, according to a report in the Mexican newspaper El Debate.

Vega told several media outlets he had upped his personal security detail after the 2007 slaying of singer Sergio Gomez, frontman for the band K-Paz de la Sierra.

Gomez, a fellow Grupero (or Mexican folk) musician, was kidnapped from a concert and later found strangled.